Enchanted

Enchanted was the in-flight movie on the way home, which was a perfect transition. I must leave the fairytale tropical island and return to Detroit. I had to be reminded that there is such a place as Detroit and that it is not quite like the magical island in the big blue sea.

Narration: "Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom known as Andalasia, there lived an evil queen. Selfish and cruel, she lived in fear that one day her stepson would marry and she would lose her thrown forever. And so she did all in her power to prevent the prince from ever meeting the one special maiden with whom he would share true love's kiss." (voice of Julie Andrews)

Giselle is your archetypal Disney princess. She sings all day with the animals in the forest about her one true love whom she has never met but is absolutely certain he exists and that he will eventually find her even though she lives in a tree house in the forest with lots of animals then they will sing a perfect duet together and exist in an eternal happily ever after state. When she finally does meet Edward, the evil step mother (Susan Sarandon) is jealous of her so she banishes her to Manhattan, the land of never happily ever after, and forms a cabal to have her killed. Erstwhile, characters are traveling between the fairytale animated world and Manhattan through a waterfall / manhole. (I guess it's just the way you look at it?) I loved when Prince Edward attacked a city bus, because he thought it was a wild beast. He also thought the tv was a magic mirror and had complete conversations with it. One scene was reminiscent of Mary Poppins / Cinderella, but with a twist. Giselle sang and at once the New York wildlife came in droves to come clean up the apartment: roaches, rats, pigeons, etc. The animals sang along with her in perfect Disney harmony. Eventually the party moves to central park. At this point Patrick Dempsey starts accepting the fact that Giselle really did come from the land of Andalasia and is a real princess after all. Many classic Disney scenes make cameos throughout the film. There's a film-still comparison at imdb.

Ultimately, the dynamic between Giselle, Patrick Dempsey, his fiancee and Giselle's fiance was interesting and made a few good points. The film lived in this sort of quasi-reality, quasi-dreamlike state. I thought it was really creative and enjoyable. I liked it because it struck a balance between cynicism and romanticism.

In the end, Giselle decides the reality of Manhattan and the complexity of the man she meets there were worth staying for. Patrick Dempsey's fiancee moves to Andalasia with Prince Edward and chooses to have her happy ending there. That just neatly ties things up at the end and allowed for that classic final scene.